Tab-separated output

CSV to Tab Delimited Text Converter

Convert CSV to tab-delimited text (TSV). Tabs rarely appear inside data, so the structure survives even when values contain commas. Paste or upload, preview, and download or paste straight into Excel.

FreeNo sign-upRuns in your browserExcel-friendly

Paste or upload text to convert.

Input — paste or upload

Drag a file here, or browse (.txt, .csv, .tsv, .json)

Output

Input is

Input delimiter

Column widths

Output as

Custom delimiter

Plain text style

First row is header

Quoting

Line ending

UTF-8 BOM (Excel)

Excel-safe numbers

A live table preview of your data appears here.

Output is tab-separated — ideal for pasting directly into a spreadsheet.

What it does

Convert CSV into tab-delimited text

Written by the TextToCSV team Updated June 2026 How we test

Tab-delimited text is one of the most reliable interchange formats because the tab character almost never appears inside real data. To convert CSV to tab delimited text file, this tool swaps the commas for tabs while keeping every column intact.

Paste or upload your CSV and download a TSV file, or copy the text and paste it directly into Excel or Google Sheets, where tab-separated content drops neatly into columns. Quoting is applied only if a value still needs it.

Want a different target? See comma, pipe or fixed-width output, or the general delimited text tool.

Step by step

How to use it

Paste or upload

Add your text or drop a file — it is read locally in your browser, never uploaded.

Preview & adjust

Check the live table and the row / column counts, then tweak the delimiter or options if a column looks off.

Copy or download

Grab the result with Copy or Download. You can reopen recent conversions from this device too.

Example

Input and output example

CSV converted to tab-separated text you can paste straight into Excel.

Input

id,name,city
1,Ada,NY
2,Lin,LA

Output

id	name	city
1	Ada	NY
2	Lin	LA

Details

Why tab-separated is so robust

TSV avoids the classic comma-inside-a-value problem.

Tabs rarely collide with data

Names, notes and addresses often contain commas, which forces quoting in CSV. Tabs almost never appear inside such values, so tab-separated text usually needs no quoting at all and is easy for other tools to read.

Paste straight into Excel

Copy the output and paste it into a spreadsheet: tab-separated text is split into columns automatically, without the import dialog. This makes TSV a fast bridge between systems and Excel.

When a value contains a tab

In the rare case a field already contains a tab or line break, it is quoted so the column boundaries stay correct.

Line endings and encoding

Choose CRLF for Windows or LF for Unix, and enable UTF-8 BOM if the file will be opened in Excel with non-Latin text.

Good to know

Tab-separated text and spreadsheets

Tab-separated values occupy a sweet spot between human readability and machine safety. Because a tab is whitespace, the file looks tidy in an editor, yet because tabs are rare inside ordinary data, the format usually avoids the quoting gymnastics that comma files require. The most useful property in day-to-day work is how spreadsheets treat it: copy tab-separated text and paste it into Excel or Google Sheets and the columns simply appear, with no import wizard and no delimiter prompt. That makes TSV an excellent bridge when you are moving data out of one system and into a spreadsheet by hand. For files saved to disk, choose CRLF endings if a Windows tool will read them, keep UTF-8 for international text, and add the BOM only when Excel is the target. Should any value contain a tab or newline, it is quoted so the structure holds.

FAQ